Meadors charged in UCA food-vendor case

Ex-school president accused of solicitation of tampering with a public record

— Former University of Central Arkansas President Allen Meadors was charged Wednesday with a misdemeanor after an almost year-long investigation of a food vendor’s botched offer to renovate the president’s UCA-owned house.

Meadors, 65, was charged with solicitation of tampering with a public record, Faulkner County Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland said, confirming information provided earlier by a source who did not want to be identified.

“No one’s above the law, not even the president of a university,” Hiland said.

“This is not a reflection on the University of Central Arkansas,” Hiland said. “Individuals make their choices. In this case, we believe the choices made by Dr. Meadors rise to the level of solicitation of tampering with a public record.”

Tampering with a public record is a Class D felony. Under Arkansas law, solicitation of tampering with a public record is one step lower, a Class A misdemeanor, Hiland explained. The misdemeanor is punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Meadors, who now lives in North Carolina, did not immediately return a phone call or an e-mail seeking comment.

His attorney, Tim Dudley of Little Rock, did not immediately return a phone message left at his office after business hours.

Hiland said his office had tried to contact Meadors and Dudley about the charge but had not been able to reach them as of late Wednesday afternoon.

The prosecutor said the sheriff ’s office will serve Meadors with a bench warrant but that Meadors’ attorney may appear in Faulkner County Circuit Court on his client’s behalf.

UCA board of trustees Chairman Bobby Reynolds said he had learned of the charge earlier Wednesday from UCA President Tom Courtway.

“Certainly he [the prosecutor] was just doing his job,” Reynolds said. “That was a sad time in UCA [history]. ... We’ve moved forward. We’re just trying to keep on moving forward.”

Meadors is the second UCA president to resign under pressure since 2008 and to face prosecution, though the charge Meadors faces is far less serious than the case against former President Lu Hardin.

The decision to charge Meadors came almost one year after Meadors resigned under pressure Sept. 2, 2011, over Aramark’s $700,000 offer to renovate the president’s house on Donaghey Avenue.

The university already had spent roughly $400,000 in mostly public money on renovations and repairs to the house since June 2009, when Meadors was hired as president.

Meadors and Scott Roussel, who was then chairman of UCA’s board of trustees, had described to other trustees the Aramark offer as a donation. Neither mentioned that the offer was contingent upon renewal of the vendor’s seven-year contract with UCA — a condition first reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Aug. 31, 2011.

The public document referred to in the charge is an Aug. 12, 2011, letter in which Aramark stated that contingency and requested that its contract be extended to May 31, 2019.

“The funding would be presented to the university immediately upon contract execution,” the letter added.

On Aug. 30, 2011, UCA released the letter to the Democrat-Gazette, which had filed a request earlier that day under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. The school also e-mailed the letter that same day to trustees, who soon met in special session and ultimately declined the $700,000 offer.

Diane Newton, UCA’s vice president for finance and administration, said in a May interview that Meadors had tried to persuade her to destroy the letter, which was addressed to her. Newton said she never considered doing so.

Responding to Newton’s statements in May, Meadors said, “I definitely don’t remember saying anything about destroying the letter or getting rid of it. I didn’t think she [Newton] had a copy” until then.

Meadors said he thought Newton “misunderstood something.”

Newton said in the interview, though, that Meadors called her and told her to get rid of the letter “several times.”

“He reiterated it over and over,” she said.

“I told him that Scott had a copy, the board had a copy, Aramark had a copy. ... He said, ‘I don’t know what the board has.’”

Meadors resigned after the board of trustees agreed to a $563,312 buyout, $225,325 of which was publicly funded. The remainder was to be paid with private funds.

Roussel — who billed the Aramark offer as “a very generous donation” and a “godsend” when he announced it at an Aug. 26, 2011, board meeting — will not be charged, Hiland said.

Meadors said nothing to correct Roussel during the Aug. 26 meeting and, in an earlier e-mail to trustees, wrote that the money was coming from a “private donor.”

Both men later blamed their failure to mention the contract contingency to other trustees on an oversight.

Vendors often finance capital projects on Arkansas campuses, particularly those that also will benefit the vendor, such as cafeteria renovations. But the investments are just that — investments that sometimes come with interest payments or other contract conditions, including provisions for the vendor to recover the money over time.

In this case, though, UCA’s other trustees indicated they had been led to believe the Aramark offer was a no-stringsattached donation, meaning already-contentious renovations on the president’s house would be financed privately rather than publicly.

Roussel resigned from the board May 6 under mounting pressure.

Hiland said he “didn’t feel there was evidence sufficient to rise to the level of a criminal charge” against Roussel.

Hiland said he called Courtway earlier Wednesday to tell him Meadors would be charged.

“He [Courtway] is a man of great integrity and a terrific leader for the university right now. ... He appreciated me calling, but his response was as it always is, and that is — you do the job and enforce the law ... and I’ll do my best to educate these students,” Hiland said.

UCA has been cooperative throughout the investigation “without reservation,” the prosecutor said.

Hiland was pushing a time limit on filing the charge against Meadors. Under Arkansas law, misdemeanors generally have a one-year statute of limitations.

In August 2008, Hardin, once an aspiring politician and former director of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, quit the UCA presidency after contention over a $300,000 bonus and a memorandum he had falsified to get that money.

In March 2011, Hardin pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to mail fraud and money laundering, both felonies. In September, he was sentenced to community service and probation.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 08/30/2012

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